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Sunderland 1 Middlesbrough 1: Striker makes it worth the wait

George Caulkin

January 30 2012, 12:01am, The Times

The midfielder fired home a fine volleySteve Drew/PA

There might have been moments when he questioned everything; dark moments of the soul when he winced in the treatment room, shed sweat on the training ground and wondered whether it was worth it. Except that Fraizer Campbell is not built that way.

Even when he was recovering from his second knee-ligament operation, Sunderland’s backroom staff marvelled at his relentless positivity. As Martin O’Neill put it yesterday, “to get the same injury again, you thought that may have been it, but he’s just said ‘no’ and knuckled down again”.

Seventeen months after his previous first-team appearance and 21 since his last goal, Campbell embraced redemption in some style, sprinting 86 yards to score Sunderland’s equaliser and keep them in the FA Cup.